“My parents are… were two of the greatest people in my life. They loved this farm and always enjoyed the guests who visited.” I looked out over the crowd at my parents funeral. It was filled with relatives, family friends, and even long time guests of the farm. Would I ever have this many people at mine?
“Our Mother honestly never wanted to be a farmer’s wife, or so she told us when she was upset, but my siblings and I knew she was full of horse dung.” This got a quiet chuckle.
“My father on the other hand grew up here and just like me had ventured out into the city where he met the second love of his life.” I choked up and shook my head. I then crumpled up the long speech I wrote as none of it felt right.
“With all the good my parents did around the community neither of them deserved to die in that car crash. In their memory I will be taking over the farm and ensuring that things won’t fall apart around here. I know it won’t be the same, since I can’t bring the same love and passion into like they did, at least not just yet but I’m going to try.” I bowed my head towards their urns.
“I love you mom and dad and I’ll make sure this place stays alive.” I wiped a tear from my eye and my sister came up to say her goodbyes. She gave me a hug on my way to sit down and we both had to choke back more sobs.
As my sister spoke I only half listened to her eulogy and farewell to our parents until she motioned for our brother to come up. He refused to speak and instead remained seated just hanging his head.
Bastard finally showed up and can’t even say goodbye. I spat on the ground in anger and thought about punching him until I noticed that he was crying where he sat. And he’s probably having just as rough a time as my sister and I.
I slowly stood up and put a hand on his back. He flinched and looked up. “Go say goodbye before it’s to late little brother.”
He finally stood up and spoke his peace.
Once he was done the three of us took their urns out to the orchard and scattered their ashes as the crowd all watched. Some were crying others just said ‘Goodbye’ and left early.
Everyone then headed back towards the main barn where the wake was being hosted so we could talk and share stories.
When the day was finally over and everyone had left I felt empty. I was a bit reluctant to fall asleep but with everything that happened there was just no fighting it. I fell asleep on the couch without even making it back to my room.
“Aw damn it.” I had fallen roughly on my hooves when arriving at the hive. After brushing myself off I sat there just reminiscing about the day until a voice broke me from my thoughts.
“Well, well, well. Look who Showed up again.” Chrissy rounded the corner with a smirk. “Ready for another round?”
“Not tonight Chrissy.” I hissed out as I hung my head. She looked taken aback for a moment then buzzed her wings.
“It’s daytime you worm. Now tell me what’s wrong.” I was a bit surprised when she sat down next to me. When I didn’t speak she poked my side. “Speak.”
I sighed. “I buried my parents today.”
“Oh, is that all?” She waved it off with a hoof. “I have buried hundreds of changelings what’s two more.”
I looked at her in shock. “I knew you were cold but…” then it hit me, she probably had buried hundreds of her own kind with how long lived she was.
I hugged her. I don’t know why but I clung onto her like a life raft at sea and didn’t let go. “You poor thing.” I didn’t forget about what I had been through today but the realization of just how bad it could be struck a cord.
“Let go of me.” She tried prying me off her but failed. My earth pony strength apparently worked in my changeling body just as well as my human one.
“No.” I didn’t yell, I just said it with such finality that she gave up. I don’t know how long I held her feeding her my emotions from the day. I noticed at one point that she had eventually begun hugging me back. I could tast some conflicting emotions wafting off her but said nothing.
“You will tell noling of this.” She rested her chin on my head and nuzzled it.
After what felt like hours of us just cuddling and sharing emotions she spoke again. “This is why it’s so hard to share love. Goodbye.” I almost didn’t catch the last part before she leaned back and blasted me into a stain on the hive floor.
When I woke up the next day I was feeling surprisingly well rested despite having died again.
My mood only soured slightly when upon entering the kitchen I found a multitude of leftovers still out. “Ug I guess I forgot to clean up after the wake.”
With a flick of my wrist the dishes began emptying their contents into the trash and washing themselves and my good mood instantly returned. “Having access to the hive mind really is convenient for learning magic. Though I should probably do some actual studying with Twilight again, at some point.”
I thought about my pony friends and everything that had happened when I last saw them. “I’ve been a terrible friend to them lately.” I mumbled to myself after realizing I had not seen them for a few weeks.
After finishing the dishes and cleaning up the kitchen I made my way outside and headed towards the barn. While the farm was closed to the public we still had employees coming to take care of the animals clean up the areas that were open to the public.
“Morning Boss.” Miller, one of the stable hands, greeted me. He was currently brushing down one of the stallion’s belonging to a guest.
“Morning Miller, you know you can just call me Anthony. How is everypony doing today.” It took me a moment to realize why he was giving me a funny look. It wasn’t until he chuckled that I let out my breath.
“Heh, ‘everypony’ that’s not a bad way to say it. Well the horses are all doing fine though they can tell something is wrong around here.” He sighed and gave the stallion a pat on his side.
“Tell me about it.” I walked off towards Flicker’s stall and her ears perked up upon my arrival. “Hey there girl. Keeping the rest of the herd here in line?”
As I stepped into her stall I put my hand on her neck and she pushed against it to say ‘hi’ then something happened that made my eyes go wide. She proudly spoke, “Of course I’m keeping the herd in line. This farm would become chaos if I didn’t.” She let out a snort.
“Heh.” After everything that happened recently I just went with it. I didn’t even notice my cutie marks glowing a bit. “True, true.” I pulled out her brush and she gave a pleased whinny. “You and my parents really kept this place together.”
“Exactly, glad you’re finally listening properly. Where are your parents anyway, we haven’t seen them for a while.” She tilted her head my way. And a few of the other horses chimed in with ‘yeah’s.
I paused my brushing. “Well girl they passed away, the funeral was yesterday that’s why so many people were here.” I rested my forehead on her neck.
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.” Flicker’s ears pinned back. “It might sound selfish but what’s happening with the farm, guests and the herd and I?”
“Thanks Flicker.” I resumed brushing her. “And no need to worry, I’ll be staying here to take over the farm. The guests will be aloud back in a few days once some paperwork is done so the herd shouldn’t get lonely without riders.”
“Oh good. I wouldn’t want someone like your brother taking over.” We both laughed at that.
“Hey boss, everything alright over there?” Miller shouted from across the barn.
“Yeah Miller. Just catching up with Flicker as I give her a good brushing.” I replied.
“Got ya. Well I’m going to start letting them out for the day then move onto my other work. Mind giving me a hand when you’re done?.” He began opening the stall doors.
“Sure. In a few minutes. I returned to finish brushing Flicker in comfortable silence.
After I finished helping let out the horses for the day, I returned to the house. Once comfortably seated on the front porch I pulled out my phone to see if I could figure out what happened in the barn.
Turns out I had gained the new availability ‘speak/read any equine language’ as a reward for getting a love filled hug from the Changeling Queen. Guess it even works on earth horses.
As I was putting my phone away I noticed a car coming up the driveway so stood up to see who it was.
A woman in a suit stepped out and started walking my way when she spotted me. “Good morning, are you Anthony?”
“I am. What can I help you with?” I was a bit concerned it might be someone pushy looking to buy.
“I represent your parents estate. You may have spoken with some of my colleagues over the phone before? There are a few things that have to be done in person for legal reasons, hence why I’m here today.” I relaxed as she spoke.
“Oh, that makes sense. I remember being told they would send someone out. Come on in.” I led her into the dining room to sit. “Can I get you anything?”
“No thanks.” She set some paperwork on the table so I sat down next to her so I could look it over. “Most of what I have is just the promissory forms for buying out your siblings. Things like how long you have to pay or get a mortgage to buy them out. Things like that.”
“Shouldn’t be an issue once I sell my house in the city.” She nodded and had me sign some forms.
“Finally we just have the business side of things. Considering this is a working farm and you receive guests you do have to maintain a few standards. Luckily your parents set everything up with our law firm ahead of time so there’s not much you need to worry about right now aside from maintaining proper records for taxes and things like that.” She passed over some more paperwork and a copy for me to keep.
“Yeah I remember most of it.” I signed and we spent the next few hours together going over everything else including if I wanted to make any changes to the business plan with her Law firm.
“Alright everything looks great. Thanks for taking time out of your day to continue working with us.” She gave me a handshake after standing up.
“No problem. Best to get that out of the way now before an issue pops up.” I walked her to the door and made sure she drove off safely.
Once she was gone I plopped down on the couch and took a deep breath. That took way too long.
My stomach then grumbled and I decided it was time for lunch. Walking into the kitchen I flicked my wrist and the kitchen filled with activity of leftovers coming out of the fridge and filling a plate. “This will literally never get old.”